18 May What Every Website Needs
Have you been wondering what you need to have on your website? Whether your website is one page or hundreds of pages, there are a few basic components that are non-negotiable. Read more to learn about what every website needs.
Every Website Needs… Navigation
People need to know where they’re going, and a website’s navigation guides their path. Your navigation should be easily accessible and clearly describe the content someone can expect to see when they click on a navigation item. On B2B and B2C websites alike, the most popular navigation items include the following:
- Home
- About or Our Story
- Services or Shop
- Contact
- Blog
The very basics of every website include information about what you do and why, information about who “you” are as a company or brand, descriptions of your main services (B2B) or products (B2C), contact information, and a blog. Blogging brings us to the second component that every website needs, which is SEO.
Every Website Needs… SEO
If you only have one page, make it count! If you have ten or more pages, get specific. Keywords impact your rankings in search results, so make sure that you include terms that people are actually searching for in your website copy. The more interlinked pages you have, the better. The only caveat being that the pages should be related in terms of topic.
We mentioned adding a blog page in the navigation section above, and this is why blogging for SEO is important. First of all, many people assume that having a “blog” page on your website automatically makes you a “blogger,” which couldn’t be further from the truth. Creating one new blog post every month helps with SEO, because you can write about niche topics related to your industry. Adding new content to your site over time, especially when paired with keyword research, drives organic (read: free) traffic to your website.
Most content management systems have built-in sections for SEO, where you can add a title and meta description. At the very least, make sure that you customize the information that goes in these two sections, since they’re what show in search results!
Every Website Needs… Calls-To-Action
If you spend the time (or money) to put together a website, you want to make sure that people can use it, find it, and then take the next desired action. This is where a call-to-action comes in. A call-to-action is typically a button or differentiated section on a website that links to a shopping page or a contact page.
Here’s an example from our portfolio page:
This differentiated visual helps customers / clients understand which action to take next and guides them through your website. But most importantly, a call-to-action typically has some monetary value based on your marketing funnel.
For example, maybe a B2B business has a conversion rate of 20% from when an initial contact form is submitted through payment. If their average project is worth $1,000, then each contact form received is worth $200.
With Google Analytics, you can assign values to specific actions (contact forms, button clicks, etc) and easily track your conversion rate over time.
For B2C businesses, calls-to-action are typically more straightforward because they link to shopping pages. B2C or e-commerce storefronts can also use features like Behavior Flow in Google Analytics to understand how customers navigate through the site to checkout. To learn more about Google Analytics for beginners, click here.
In summary…
Whether your website is a single page or over ten pages, it needs to have clear navigation, SEO, and at least one call-to-action.